State Legislature Advocacy

*Updated 1/11/2026

Current Situation

The next State of Alaska legislative session started Jan. 20, 2026. Education funding will be a central part of the discussion around balancing the state budget and will directly impact the Anchorage School District’s proposed 2026-27 budget and it’s impacts on teachers, classrooms, and programs district wide. 

What Can We Do?

Even though the session has just started, we can always communicate with our representatives and let them know how important education funding is to us! Specifically, right now, we can advocate for inflationary adjustments for schools in the budget.

We recommend phone calls or face-to-face discussions at town halls or other local events hosted by your representatives, but there are other ways to communicate that we have outlined below.

The message right now is simple: Increased, inflation-proof education funding is critical. Adequately funded public schools are our constitutional right. Alaska’s kids depend on it!  

Need to know who represents you? Find out here! Click on the link. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Look for the ‘Who Represents me?’ box on the right side of the page, and type in your full address.  

Here are two simple ways you can reach out to your representatives right now:

Public Opinion Message

Send a short (50-word maximum) message to all members of the legislature using the “Public Opinion Messages” tool on akleg.gov. Through this tool, you can send your message to ALL state legislators, which we recommend. 

Tips: 

• If you don't have a login and password, use the "Normal Login". 

• Click the button "Send to all Legislators" on the bottom of the Edit Recipients page to quickly check all boxes. 

• On the Edit Message page in the Bill Root field you can enter a specific bill number and indicate if you support or oppose it in the next field. If your topic does not align with a specific bill number, you can keep that field blank and then in the Opinion field you can select "Not related to Bill" and under the Subject field you can select "Education".

Here is a sample 50-word letter in support of increased education funding that you can copy and paste into the public message page (don't forget to add the specifics and delete the placeholders):

I am a parent of students in the Anchorage School District and a constituent of [name of your State House Representative and Senator]. Please fight for a significant and sustained increase in our education funding. Adequately funded public schools are our constitutional right. Alaska’s kids depend on it!  

Letter Writing

You can also write a letter to your legislators (and send to ALL legislators). Specifically, here's what you can do: 

• Send to all legislators (email list to cut and paste into your email can be found here)

• Please also send a message to the governor using this web form. 

• If you'd like to send a message to our State Education Commissioner Deena Bishop, her address is deed.commissioner@alaska.gov.

• Compose a letter:

  • Letters should be concise but should also include personal details about your family, your situation, and what the lack of funding has meant and will mean to you.

  • Letters should state whose constituent you are, but you can still send the email to the entire House and Senate. We are told that education is a priority for everyone. Those who are helping to fight for funding can pull out quotes and hold other legislators up as examples if they aren't responding to their constituents.

Resources

Media Resources

• “Alaska Legislature launches education funding task force to address finances and future of schools.”  Alaska Beacon, July 1, 2025

• "Alaska Gov. Dunleavy vetoes corporate tax bill intended to fund public education programs." Alaska Beacon, Sept. 29, 2025